Chapter 147: Gaining Another Identity
Yesterday, the final transaction price of Hongkong Electric Group was HK$2.46 per share. Based on this transaction price, after increasing it by another 10%, the final agreed transaction price came to exactly HK$119 million.
After reaching an agreement, both parties agreed to sign the equity transfer contract at the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters at ten o'clock the next morning.
The remaining matters could naturally be left to Percy to handle. Lin Haoran only needed to go to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters tomorrow morning.
Holding the signed agreement, Lin Haoran left the hotel directly and returned to the office in the Wan'an Group building.
Then, he calculated his available funds.
Although Qingzhou Yingni Company had accumulated quite a bit of available cash over the past six months or so, Lin Haoran had not taken any of it out for use, instead having Burton use it all to buy land.
The same was true on the Wan'an Group side. Not only had he not taken any dividends from the shares, he had even had the group take out loans to buy land for investment.
Therefore, Lin Haoran's actual available funds consisted of the US$90 million left over from selling the oil, which was HK$477 million, plus the HK$40 million dividend that Aimeigao Company had distributed not long ago.
However, his expenses had also been substantial since returning from the United States.
Acquiring the shares held by the six shareholders of Wan'an Group, as well as the shares held by his elder brother Lin Haoning, had cost HK$45 million.
On the Universal Investment Company side, accumulating enough Wan'an Group shares to meet the privatization threshold had also cost HK$23.8 million.
And the other major expense was acquiring shares in Hongkong Electric Group. He had accumulated a full 47.9 million shares, spending HK$115.53 million.
Taking all these revenues and expenditures into account, Lin Haoran found that he had HK$332.67 million in available funds remaining.
More than HK$300 million in available funds was not bad.
However, tomorrow he would have to spend another HK$119 million to purchase the 44 million Hongkong Electric Group shares held by Percy.
So, after this transaction, he would have only a little over HK$210 million left.
Money really did not last long. He could only hope that the profits from the gold side would arrive smoothly, which would give him much more financial breathing room.
After staying at the company for only a short while, Lin Haoran went home to rest.
A little after nine the next morning, Lin Haoran did not go to the Wan'an Group building first, but came directly to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building on Kennedy Road.
Hongkong Electric Group's headquarters was located on Kennedy Road in the Central and Western District of Hong Kong Island, and this address had never changed since the company's establishment.
Although it was in Wan Chai, only a hundred meters away from the bustling Central and Wan Chai areas, it was actually up on the mountain.
After explaining his purpose to the foreign receptionist, the other party was not surprised at all. Instead, she respectfully led Lin Haoran to the elevator, clearly having received advance notice.
Under the guidance of the foreign beauty at the front desk, Lin Haoran eventually arrived at a conference room.
It was already around 9:50 in the morning, so he had arrived quite punctually.
Looking inside, Lin Haoran immediately spotted the somewhat balding Percy, as well as the famous chairman of Hongkong Electric Group.
Although Hongkong Electric Group was a British-owned enterprise, with many of its major shareholders being British, the chairman of this giant foreign trading company was actually Chinese. He was Mr. Chan Shou-lin.
Under Mr. Chan's leadership, Hongkong Electric Group began diversifying its development, breaking away from its single electricity-selling business structure. This allowed Hongkong Electric Group's profits to grow year after year, and it could be said that he was also a very capable professional manager.
Fifteen people had gathered in the conference room, and these were some of the members of Hongkong Electric Group's board of directors.
What surprised Lin Haoran was that apart from Chan Shou-lin, there were actually three other Chinese faces among Hongkong Electric Group's senior management team.
Of the fifteen people present, apart from the four Chinese, all the rest were foreign faces.
This was much better than Qingzhou Yingni Company had been before.
Before Lin Haoran took control of Qingzhou Yingni Company, there had not been a single Chinese person among its senior management. The entire management team had seemed extremely resistant to Chinese employees.
Yet Hongkong Electric Group was many times larger than Qingzhou Yingni Company and could still accommodate Chinese executives, which also broadened Lin Haoran's horizons.
But it was understandable upon reflection. Hongkong Electric Group was not only a publicly listed company, it had also never had a family as its major shareholder. Its senior management was mainly externally recruited, so it naturally appeared much more open-minded in this regard.
Of course, judging by the number of foreigners, Hongkong Electric Group's board members were still predominantly foreign, which was understandable given that it was a company founded with British capital.
But this also showed that Chan Shou-lin, a professional manager in his fifties, was capable of serving as chairman of Hongkong Electric Group and winning the recognition and trust of so many foreigners, which was enough to prove his management ability.
"Mr. Lin, you really are young and promising!" Chan Shou-lin warmly shook hands with Lin Haoran in greeting.
"Hello, Mr. Chan." Lin Haoran responded with a slight smile.
Soon, he learned the identities of the people present.
Among these dozen or so people, only four were actual shareholders, all foreigners. The rest were senior executives of Hongkong Electric Group. They either held no Hongkong Electric Group shares or only a small number of shares. These people were basically professional managers of Hongkong Electric Group, including Chairman Chan Shou-lin.
Of course, there were more than just these four publicly known shareholders of Hongkong Electric Group, but it was impossible for too many of them to come.
Because most of Hongkong Electric Group's shareholders were passive shareholders, and even members of Hongkong Electric Group's board of directors did not come here frequently.
Percy had called them over merely to serve as witnesses.
"Mr. Lin, I have already prepared all the materials required for our transaction, including the contract and share certificates. In addition, once the shares are transferred to you, the position of Hongkong Electric Group director that I hold in name will also be assumed by you." Percy said with a smile.
Thinking about how smoothly this transaction had gone, the smile on Percy's face became even brighter.
More than HK$100 million in funds! When he came to Hong Kong a few years ago, the funds he brought with him had been less than half of this amount.
Not only that, he had also used the dividends he received from Hongkong Electric Group to establish a hotel in Hong Kong. Although the rent for an entire building was not cheap, business was also quite good.
Once this transaction was completed, he could leave Hong Kong at any time, returning to Scotland whenever he wanted.
He no longer needed to worry too much about Hong Kong's future.
What Percy did not know, however, was that the longer he stayed, the more he would regret it.
Because he would watch Hongkong Electric Group's market value rapidly rise from more than HK$1 billion, eventually multiplying several times over in just a few years.
In other words, if he chose to keep holding his shares, several years later the shares in his hands would be worth HK$400 million to HK$500 million.
But by then, it would be too late for regrets.
Returning to the scene in the Hongkong Electric Group conference room, both parties had already reached an agreement and signed the transaction agreement, so there was naturally no need for further negotiations.
Therefore, witnessed by numerous members of Hongkong Electric Group's board of directors, Lin Haoran and Percy successfully completed the transaction.
After getting it done, Lin Haoran did not dawdle and went directly to the bank with Percy to complete the transfer.
After the transfer was settled, Lin Haoran also breathed a sigh of relief. This transaction was finally complete.
Although he had paid HK$119 million for it, he had also successfully obtained 44 million Hongkong Electric Group shares from the other party.
Together with the 47.9 million shares previously accumulated by Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran now secretly controlled 91.9 million Hongkong Electric Group shares, accounting for approximately 14.59% of the total shares.
In other words, publicly, he had merely become Hongkong Electric Group's second-largest shareholder, holding approximately 6.98% of the group's shares.
Behind the scenes, however, he had officially become Hongkong Electric Group's largest shareholder, owning 14.59% of its shares.
Suddenly, Lin Haoran felt that becoming the largest shareholder had been far too easy.
But no matter what, this was still a good thing.
At least, Hongkong Electric Group had not yet attracted the attention of major forces.
But if he waited another two years, not only Hutchison Whampoa, but also Cheung Kong Holdings, Carrian Group, and other forces would be eyeing Hongkong Electric Group covetously. By then, it would be much harder for him to acquire so many Hongkong Electric Group shares so easily.
After acquiring Percy's shares, Lin Haoran deliberately returned to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building and inspected the group once again.
Perhaps because he had become the first Chinese shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group to control a large number of shares, Chairman Chan was particularly enthusiastic toward Lin Haoran, personally leading him around the group's various departments and introducing them.
Along the way, Chan Shou-lin also introduced his management philosophy, as well as his plans for Hongkong Electric Group's future development.
From his plans, Lin Haoran could sense that Chan Shou-lin's overall development strategy for the future was quite good. For example, he planned to cooperate with other real estate companies to develop the former North Point Electric Road Power Station site, Inland Lot No. 8200 at Jardine's Lookout, the former Chai Wan switching station site, as well as several plots of land in Sheung Wan, Tsuen Wan, and Fortress Hill, in order to strengthen Hongkong Electric Group's capabilities in the real estate business while also increasing the group's profitability.
Relying solely on electricity sales provided stable revenue, but its ceiling was not high.
Whoever took the helm of the group would hope to break through this bottleneck and make the group's profitability stronger, and clearly Chan Shou-lin was no exception.
If Lin Haoran had not intervened in Hongkong Electric Group's affairs, barring any surprises, by the end of next year Hongkong Electric Group would form an International City Group together with Wheelock Group, one of the four major foreign trading companies, and Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings.
The purpose of establishing this International City Group would be to develop the numerous plots of land under Hongkong Electric Group.
However, Lin Haoran was now already serving as a director of Hongkong Electric Group, and after obtaining huge profits from the gold market, he would directly take control of Hongkong Electric Group. Naturally, he would not let Hongkong Electric Group take this path.
Good opportunities should not benefit outsiders. Even if the land was to be developed, Wan'an Group would be the one to develop it.
In this way, Wan'an Group's strength could also be greatly enhanced.
If Wan'an Group truly lacked the necessary strength, he could simply take control of another real estate company.
At the end of 1982, affected by the real estate crisis, many property companies would inevitably go bankrupt or undergo restructuring because of broken cash flows, including some powerful real estate developers.
At that time, Wan'an Group could merge with the acquired real estate companies, and its real estate development capabilities would naturally increase dramatically.
So, this was actually very easy to resolve.
At this moment, with only a small number of people aware of it, Lin Haoran had once again gained a special identity—the major shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group.
He had no intention of making this identity public for the time being, lest it attract the attention of certain interested parties, such as Li Ka-shing.
And there was no need to specifically issue a public announcement about a directorship without actual authority.
(End of Chapter)
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